Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Ewan McGregor, A Gentleman in Moscow, Mothers’ Instinct & Silver Haze

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

This week, Obi Wan Kenobi himself, aka Ewan McGregor, sits down with Simon to discuss his new miniseries ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, which sees a Russian aristocrat spared from death and placed under house arrest while the Bolshevik Revolution plays out before him. Mark also gives his take on the series, as well as reviewing ‘Mothers’ Instinct’, a Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway-starring thriller about a pair of rich suburban housewives, whose sisterly bond is unraveled after a tragic accident shatters their seemingly picture-perfect lives; and ‘Silver Haze’, a British drama about a young nurse, who is unable to build any meaningful relationship thanks to her obsession with getting revenge for a traumatic event that happened 15 years prior, until she falls in love with one of her patients. Plus, Mark and Simon keep us up to date on the cinematic events happening around the country. Timecodes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are also ad-free!): 07:14 Mother’s Instinct Review 14:21 Box Office Top 10 30:55 Interview with Ewan McGregor 42:05 A Gentleman in Moscow Review 48:22 Silver Haze Review 52:24 What’s On You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark, I was rewatching The Wolf of Wall Street just the other day and I thought to myself, yes, wouldn't it be good to make all that money without doing, you know, all that bad stuff? It certainly would, Simon, without the bad stuff. Yes. Well, Mark, after the film finished, I hopped onto the internet, as you do, and I found this site called Shopify. Have you heard of Shopify?

I think I might have done, but tell me. Well, Shopify is the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run or grow your own business. Yes, I have heard of Shopify. It's the commerce platform revolutionising millions of businesses worldwide. That's right. Whether you're selling Danish pastries or cherry wine, Shopify simplifies selling online and in person so you can successfully grow your business. Full of the industry-leading tools ready to ignite your growth, Shopify gives you complete control over your business and your brand without learning new skills

in design or coding. And what's lovely about Shopify is that no matter how big you want to grow, Shopify will be there to empower you with the confidence and control to take your business to the next level. Sign up for a £1 per month trial period at Shopify.co.uk slash Curmode. Hello? Not Mayo, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.co.uk slash Curmode. Take your business to the next level today. That's Shopify.co.uk slash Curmode.

Something wrong here. Without Mayo. Mayer. Have you had a soundtrack to your morning? Have you listened to music? I have listened to music. What music did you listen to? Okay, so the music I've listened to is, you know I told you- Just this morning?

Just this morning. Yeah. You know, I told you that the Gang of Three project, I said, I've got this idea, a Gang of Four tribute band with three people in it who are going to play entertainment from beginning to end. And it sounded like a stupid idea. It is now a reality because my friend Simon had a 60th birthday party. And so we showcased the four songs from entertainment.

So the Gang of Three is now real. So this morning, what I listened to was the tape of us playing ether and damaged goods. And I found that essence rare. So you listened to yourself? Yes. Okay. We were rocking. Well, I'm just going to suggest that I was rocking slightly more.

Were you? I was. Yes. I had at half past six this morning, the jukebox was on. Because you actually have a jukebox. I have a jukebox and I have a jukebox. And Oscar was there. He loves the whole... I mean, imagine, you know, it's chrome. It lights up.

It has sound and buttons. Thunderous mechanical buttons. So this morning, at a ridiculously early time, I had Ritchie Valens, come on, let's go. What a fantastic song that is. Little Darling by Diamonds. That's come on. Let's go. What a fantastic song that is. Little Darling by Diamonds. That's a hit. The 1910 fruit gum company, Simon Says. Simple Simon Says.

A bit of bubble gum. I didn't know that was who that was by. And Born at the Right Time by Paul Simon. So also the 45 remix of The Jungle Book from about 1994 where they try and put a disco beat behind a couple of the hits from there. Anyway, so it was rocking. Did your child and your grandchild enjoy sleeping in my room? They don't see it as such. Really? Yes. Child one.

You sent me a message which said, just to let you know, Child one and grandchild are visiting on Tuesday night. And I said, really? Where are they going to sleep? They've reclaimed their territory. What are you going to do? What, now? Yeah, now on the podcast, by the way. Well, oh, is that a piece of paper? We're going to be, oh, instantly I've moved around some orders of things. So we're going to be reviewing Mother's Instinct, we're going to be reviewing Silver Haze and Kung Fu Panda IV. No, that's not right.

What are you going to do? You've got no idea what you're going to do. We're going to be reviewing Mother's Instinct, we're going to be reviewing Silver Haze, and we're going to be talking about a gentleman in Moscow with our very special guest. Who is Ewan McGregor? Who is that there, Ewan McGregor? Under slightly complicated circumstances, for whatever reason, I couldn't really hear what he was saying. So I could hear the beginning and the end of every answer and that was pretty much it. There's not a lot of to and fro in there, but anyway, Ewan, he's always nice to have on the show

and he's got an interest on the team. I've listened to the interview, it's very good. It does sound like you're engaging with him. It's been edited beautifully. And so sound like you're engaging with him. It's been edited beautifully. And so a tribute to our fine production team. It worried me slightly because the fact that you couldn't hear him, but you still gave the impression of having a conversation with him makes me now think that every conversation we've ever had, you're not actually listening.

You're just going. There is every chance. And how does that make you feel? That makes me feel fine. No, it's you going. You know, it's like the psychiatrist thing, isn't it? They're not listening to you, they just go, and how did that make you feel?

I'll pass six. That's right. We've got a new producer starting today and- Jeremy. That's what he's known as. Jeremy. But fortunately no one knows that music. You have awakened a woman in me.

No, I don't think so. Jeremy. Let's not call it, let's call him- Let's play that song. You have awakened the woman in me. No, I don't think so. Let's not call it, let's call it... Let's play that song. Let's just call him Gem. It's a heartbreaker. No, it's not. It's a horrible song. Now, don't forget, our extra takes, by the way, has the Weekend Watchlist and the Weekend

Not List. It is the TV movie of the week. Bonus reviews of... Kung Fu Panda 4. Yes. And the reissue of Mary Poppins, which is back in cinemas. Chim Chimney. That'll be, I bet you did a lot of work for that one.

Yeah, I had to research it. It was really hard. One frame back, top Ewan McGregor performances on TV and in the movies. You can access all of this genius via Apple podcast. So head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. And if you are already a fan, glad least as always, we salute you. How about this for a name? Go ahead.

Baptiste Collard. Well. Possibly Collard. Baptiste Collard. But would it be pronounced Baptiste or Baptiste? Well let's go through it. Marks mentioned, dear bonjour and hello, Marks mention in the recent take two of the Dutch swear words directed at God being the most offensive in the Dutch language reminded me of a peculiar

fact. I was born in the south of Belgium, a very rural area where traditions remain strong and where local dialects can be still heard from time to time. Although French is the lingua franca of most of Wallonia and about 70% of Brussels, my grandparents would often pepper their conversations with Walloon words. When I was a kid, a French-inspired patois, and it became a habit for me to do the same. With time, I realized that one of these words was seldom used in more populated areas of Wallonia, but was almost ubiquitous in Flanders and about 30% of Brussels. It was obvious that that particular insulting word aimed at God wasn't Walloon,

but indeed Dutch. I went on to ask my grandparents why they would use that word as if it were their own and got the weirdest answer I could have hoped for. When we were children, we weren't allowed to blaspheme in French or Walloon, but we assume that God didn't speak Dutch. Is that right? There you go. It's also interesting to note that although the use of Walloon is dwindling, it is not just spoken in the southern part of my country, but is also used in a very small community north of Wisconsin, where Belgian gold prospectors travel to seek fortune, settle, and occasionally swear in Dutch."

So as he's Belgian, he must be Baptiste Collard. Merci. So that's fascinating. Well, I wonder whether he has enjoyed the Belgian nudist tragedy comedy, Patrick. She's in a field of its own. It's a very good film. I reviewed it here on Take some years ago, but it's a really, really interesting and it is, I think, the only Belgian nudist tragedy comedy that I've ever seen.

And it'd be nice to hear from other Walloon speakers. Is it Wallonian? Or is it just...? Well it's Wallonia and they are Walloons. Okay. And they speak Walloon. So swearing in Dutch is a surprising subject on which to alight. But it's just like the idea that God doesn't speak Dutch. That might, I mean, you never know. That might actually be true.

Fine. So do you think all those Dutch Protestants, God is listening going, what are they saying? Correspondence at kermade.com, if you are a Walloon speaker and would like to share your cuss words, tell us about a movie which is cinematically released. Mother's Instinct, which is a psychological thriller from French cinematographer turned director Benoit Delon, who he won a César for cinematography for Artemisia back in the 90s. What was that called again?

Artemisia back in the 90s. What was that called again? Artemisia. Anyway, so this is a remake of a 2018 French film, which was based on a 2012 novel by Barbara Abel called Derriela N, which I thought meant after the hatred. In fact, it means behind the hatred. So 1960s America, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway are Alice and Celine, two suburban mothers living next door to each other in kind in classic 60s picket fence surroundings. Their husbands who look like they're extras from Mad Men work. They look after their respective sons.

They have their kind of problems. One of them wants to go back to work. One of them doesn't particularly want to have another baby immediately. Anyway, one day whilst pruning the roses, Jessica Chastain's character looks up and sees Anne Hathaway's character's son precariously balanced on a balustrade on the balcony on the edge of the house trying to reach a birdhouse. And she shouts out and runs, runs, runs towards the house, can't get through the hedge, has to go all the way around. Tragedy strikes. When tragedy has struck, the mother of the child who was up on the balustrade starts

to perhaps blame her friend for the tragedy, and she then starts spending more and more time with, as Celine says, she starts spending more time with Alice's son. And this worries Alice because in the garden, when she's out a few weeks or months later, she looks up and sees her own son up on the same balcony. Here's a clip. Did you put Theo on that balcony?

To test me? Do you think I'm capable of something like that? Celine. It helps me to spend time with Theo and it helps him too. He's lonely Alice. He's like a ghost without Max. Can you see that? Did he use him to test you? Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. I just, I feel, I feel terrible for getting there for Theo and not for Max.

I'm very sorry. At the beginning, you don't know whether or not the whole thing is paranoia. Whether or not Alice thinks that Celine blames her for the accident or whether Celine actually does or whether it's just that they're reading each other wrong. And then all the emotions start to become more and more heightened. I mean, you heard in that there's a kind of breathlessness in those conversations. Well, that breathlessness kind of cranks up. It's ripe, it's raw.

Sometimes it seems more like a fashion show than a thrill. I mean, the dresses are absolutely marvelous. There's one moment in which Jessica Chastain's character is wearing, I think it's Jessica, maybe it's Anne Hathaway, is wearing a blue dress and matching blue shoes. And despite the fact that all this stuff is going, you think, wow, that is an absolute ensemble to die for. Scenery is royally chewed by the cast. There's lots of really sort of strong emotions on display.

Here's the thing, I kind of enjoyed it because I think if you're going to have a pot boiler, the pot needs to be boiled. And although it sort of starts, you know, you think, I don't know the level of seriousness of this, by the time you get to about halfway through, it's evident that everything is overcooked and right now, I haven't seen the, I haven't read the book and I haven't seen the first adaptation of, first film adaptation of it. I think it may be that Benoit Delon is sort of aiming for the kind of, you know, that iciness of Claude Chabrol, but he's closer to the sort of Almodovar, you know, everything is turned up to 11. And it tips into utter ridiculousness. It's got a great score by Anne Nicotine whose work I really, really like. And it tips into utter ridiculousness. It's got a great score by Ann Nicotine, whose

work I really, really like. And you could very easily just laugh at it and go, this is just stupid. But I think if you're going to have a ripe, raw potboiler, it needs to be ripe and raw and it needs to boil. And it does both of those things. It was just great fun seeing those two actors. They're both great actors. Fantastic actors. Really giving it some welly. I enjoyed it. It's the kind of movie that if you said, should we go and see a movie that's got Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain,

you'd probably go, yeah, probably. You've got Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and matching powder blue dress and shoes. And incredible amounts of lipstick. You go, yep, I'll have that. I think it was fun. Still to come on this AirPod, what else? Oh, still to come, I'm going to be reviewing Silverhaze, which is a really brilliant British

movie and we're going to talk gentlemen in Moscow with our special guest. Sir Ewan McGregor, wise, wise words now, which Mark and I in alternating weeks have to guess the artist and well, in theory, terrible song, but actually Mark will just have picked some words he likes. No, no, I haven't. No, no, I've gone back to the original rules. I've gone back to the original rules. You ready for this? Yes. Man is far behind in the search of something new. Like a philistine, we're burning witches too. This world of hate must be designed for you. It matters what you say, and it matters

what you do. What you do. Okay, who can that be? Well hello there, Simon and Mark here to tell you about Indeed. Yes, Indeed is driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. If you need to hire, then you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform, with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data.

And if you're busy watching all of this week's film recommendations and you have no time, then you can use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging, so you can connect with candidates faster. But Indeed doesn't just help you hire faster. 75% of employers claim Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other online job sites. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences.

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You need indeed. Indeed. This episode is brought to you by the good folks at NordVPN. Mark, would you say that AI has been one of the hot topics of the last 12 months or so? I would indeed say that, Simon. We've had writers and actors striking over the potential misuses of AI. We've had many films exploring the topic, including Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One and The Creator among others.

We have and although technological advancements bring with them exciting things, they also open the door to cybercrime. Yes, and with all these technological improvements, cybercrime will become more accessible to the average criminal and will become more frequent. And I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is why NordVPN is so important. With one click on the NordVPN app, you are protected, meaning that you don't have to be tech savvy. Their threat protection feature shields your devices from viruses, malicious malware and

phishing sites. Also one NordVPN account can be used on up to six devices. Plus you can get access to streaming services in other regions, all for the price of a cup of coffee per month. To get the best available discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash take. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee, and you'll help support our podcast. The link is in the podcast episode description box. Okay, so this week's Wise Wise Words, just remind me. Man is far behind in the search of something new, like a philistine, we're burning witches too.

This world of hate must be designed for you. It matters what you say, it matters what you do. Is it Chesney Hawks? No, but you're in the right ballpark. The Tremolos. Why are the Tremolos in the right ballpark of Chesney Hawks? Because the lead singer of the Tremolos is his dad. Oh.

Is he Chip Hawks or someone like that? Oh, okay. Fine, fine, fine. Yeah. No, it's not Chesney Hawks. Dave Dee, Dozy Bee, Mickey McIntish. You're not even trying fine. Yeah, no, it's not Chesney Hawks. Dave D, Dozy B, Humic and Tid. No, you're not even trying now. The thing is, you've played this record loads of times. Have I? What is it?

War is stupid and people are stupid and people who start wars are really naughty, which I think I've covered in some detail in the first verse. Some other artists might have performed better lyrics about war. Yeah. It really, I mean, honestly, when you hear that song, it really changes your view of war, doesn't it? Yeah, I was all in favor. They're all in favor. I mean, it turns out, no, according to Culture Club, it's not good. By the way, I saw a joke this morning, which I'm going to...

You saw a joke. I saw a joke. I read a joke. And I'm separating this from the laughter lift where we'll head to. Because it's actually head to because it's actually funny because it's actually fun. Okay. And it came from, uh, this is a woman on threads called Marianna Zed. Okay. Anyway, it was to laugh out loud, you know, in the early hours.

It's quite, it's all good. Always good. Uh, she said, I've got two, maybe three Motown puns in me. Four tops. I thought that was good. Box office top 10 this week. It's actually quite good. I'm sorry. That's actually not a bad joke.

Yes. It's probably done the rounds and there are a number of different versions of it, but that's the one I had. Yeah, no, I actually quite like that. Number 21, the Persian version. Which I enjoyed. I thought it was good fun. I think it's a kind of a well-done culture clash comedy that goes places that you do not expect it to go at all.

I mean, it's sort of- Not a culture club comedy. Not a culture club comedy. But remember war is naughty and people are naughty and people who start wars are really naughty. Yes, and deserve bad things. Bad things. Number 10, The Zone of Interest.

It's doing terrifically well for a film which is... Number 25 in the States. Yeah, but for a film which is very challenging and, you know, nobody... It's not one of those things like I was just saying about Mother's Instinct. You know, you could go in an afternoon, you're not going to go, oh, I've got an afternoon for it. I know, I'll just watch Zone of Interest. You have to book in to see it and then you have to book time afterwards too. So it's doing really well. It's an absolutely brilliant film. Number nine, Drive Away Dolls. Not a hit. What a surprise that this absolutely ridiculously stupid indulgence didn't do well.

Yeah. I mean, I thought it was rubbish and I was funny in the screening that I was in, there were a couple of people laughing. I laughed once. I just thought it was, I think it's the worst Cohen affiliated movie since Burn After Reading. But no, it's rubbish. Number eight, number seven in the States is imaginary. I still haven't, I still haven't and I should do, but I hadn't. Here's the problem. The next two weeks, there are two things that I have to catch up that they're not screening in time. So, the Kong Godzilla, they haven't screened it yet when we're recording this podcast.

It won't screen until this evening. So, we'll have to do that next week. And then next week, the first Omen, they're not screening until we're actually recording the podcast. We'll have to do that. So, I've already got a backlog. So, I imagine it is going to get lost in the shuffle. Number seven, here's Six in the states, Late Night with the Devil.

I thought this was great. I thought this was a really terrific sort of retro horror chiller inspired by Ghost Watch. A couple of people said, well, you know, that's not what American late night TV was like. Yes, it is. I've watched enough of it because when I was doing the Exorcist book, there was loads and loads of late night TV things about the exorcist in which Blatty or Freakin would be on. I thought it was really well done.

It's just creepy enough to be really engaging and it's funny and satirical. Pete Smith says, I don't quite get this, but maybe you will as you've seen it. Dear, I'm getting an M and is there a Sam? No, Simon. Yes, Simon. Yeah, it's the guy is a mind reader. So he does the thing about in front of him, I'm getting an M, an E, a P, a Z. Is there someone here who used to be married to a man with hair?

That's right, yes. I've just come back from a 7pm viewing of Late Night with the Devil at the Shepard's Bush View. While I normally stay to the end of the credits for most films, this time was partly so I could wait for the lights to come back on. I haven't had such a strong reaction to a horror movie since Hereditary, or when the ending of St. Maude made me audibly yell Blimey Charlie, albeit in a less than radio-friendly manner. Late Night with the Devil develops an ever-enveloping layer of creeping dread with shocking spasms that finally explodes headfirst into an absolute melon farmer of a final 15 minutes. The cast

were uniformly excellent, I had no idea that the great Michael Ironside was the narrator, and the production design, visual style and tight script helped close the walls in on the claustrophobia of the film being in real time with the frame by frame scene being a standout. While I would love the film to get the box office it deserves, I also feel its particular style makes it one of the rare films that may even be improved by watching it on a television at home with the lights off and the door closed. That is an interesting thing because it's like if you're watching something about a television program, is it actually more, is it more scary? I mean, I remember somebody saying the Blair Witch project is terrifying enough, but if

you watch the Blair Witch project at home, it's really, really creepy because it does look like you've found a videotape that you really shouldn't be watching. Daisy Veebe says, Mark Simon, I was really interested to discover a controversy brewing regarding the use of AI in some still images within Late Night with the Devil. You didn't mention it on your episode, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts regarding the use of AI, no matter how small and inconsequential plot wise, making its way into a theatrically released picture.

Do you think it should put people off seeing the film that it has completely stamped, they used another word, on the value of art, as some are saying? Or do you think the film's many other merits warrant a viewing regardless? I'm still pondering what I am going to do. Luckily, cinema tickets around my area cost such hideous amounts of money that I'm taking my time to make a decision. Well, I'll be honest with you. As far as I understand, the AI was just used to generate those interstitials, which are very fleeting. Each other?

Just because they'll go away to a break. As I understand it, they'll go away to an advert break and they'll come back and there'll be an image saying, you know, the late night TV, night owls. As far as I understand, that's what they've used it for. I'm not entirely sure. The thing is, if you're making low budget movies, people are going to use whatever tools they have to hand. It's just you know, this is a little bit like, you know, synthesizers, when synthesizers were first around people because it's the easiest way of making a sound. I mean, it didn't put me off the film. I

wasn't aware of the controversy about it until after I'd seen the film. And then I read some people say I'm not seeing it because of the use of AI. I think you're going to be on a sticky wicket if you start forever more. I mean, it is like, you know, being against Wednesday. It's coming around no matter what you do. Bob Marley, One Love is at number six. It was the headline from the BBFC's rejigging of their classification guidelines recently that it went that was classified as 12A rather than 15 because the public had

decided that they're no longer concerned about marijuana smoking on screen. And that was probably the biggest shift. And what that tells you is that this huge consultation that the BBFC did, the general response from the public was, yes, you are doing what we think is right. Number five, number 19 in America is migration. Which you know, again, done very, very well. I say this every single week, well done to the parent who was smart enough that when their child got scared, they took them out.

I would love to know if you were the person who sent in that email, did you go back? Did you go back and see the rest of them? I think it wasn't a plot spoiler to say they're all fine. Wicked Little Letters is at number four. Loved it. I mean, I know that we've been making a joke about the reason it's funny is because hearing Olivia Colman swearing is funny. There is much more to Wicked Little Letters than just that. And I think that the writing is really well done because the baroque nature of the swearing, because it is based on a real life case, the baroque nature of the swearing is just very,

very strange and very entertaining. Tim Evans in Colchester, this is Immaculate by the way, it's number three and number four in the state. Yeah. Tim Evans, having watched Immaculate last night, I decided the following review summed it up nicely. Rosary's baby. Kind regards. Oh, that's very good. That's very good.

Ben Vost says, dear correspondent and correspondents, I listened to Mark saying that the last scene of Sidney Sweeney Starra Immaculate. Yeah, Sidney Sweeney Starra Immaculate. Was amazing and so decided to change my cinema going choice from Tachikawa's jazz based animation blue giant to said film. That final scene wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. But not better than the final scene of 2022's Pearl, surely.

Hello Tim, hello Simon. Surely some mistake. Thank you Ben. Incoherent there. Well, the 2022's Pearl has got the most brilliant, it's just this holding on Mia Goth's face. And I said it's like the final scene of The Long Good Friday when you just look at Bob Hoskins in the car that he's in and he realizes what's happened. You can kind of see the whole movie playing out and it's Mia Goth just grinning at the

camera in that mad Mia Goth way for three minutes. But I genuinely think that Immaculate is so much better than I thought it was going to be and I really enjoyed it. I do think the final scene is dark, dark, dark. Number two in the UK and number two in the States is Dune Part II. All the twos at number two. My question. Yes.

How do they get the car bit on the worm? Like when she's in the sort of like first class version, you know, when they're riding the worm, but she's in the bit that's like a kind of like a tent thing. What do they do? They stop the worm? Because... Is it premium worm? It is premium worm, yeah. She's booked it on train line.

Yes. And then she upgraded to first class. But how do they get that thing on the worm? Because as far as we can tell, the worm is moving very fast. You can't get one on Thameslink, by the way. I used to get the Thameslink from King's Cross to Dawking and now the worm won't go there. It says you've got to go via Waterloo. I'm not getting a worm from Waterloo. It has been bothering me since somebody brought it up. How did they get the first class compartment

on top of the worm? Ghostbusters Frozen Empire is a military and it's a number one here. I predicted it as I was always saying. Absolute rubbish, but it'll go to number one. Ross says, I went to see the new Ghostbusters over the weekend against my better judgment as one of my friends has been feeling rather poorly of late and he mistakenly thought this would lift his spirits. Needless to say it didn't. But not in an offensive way like some people took Ghostbusters

2016. This movie deserves nothing more than to be forgotten and not spoken of again and relegated to that same dustbin of history that the 2014 RoboCop remake and American Psycho 2 call home. Down with pointless sequels, up with the usual stuff, stuff Hello to Jason Owen in a haunted library somewhere in Plymouth as Ghostbusters 2 was the first cinema experience I remember there is always something special and personal when it comes to watching a Ghostbuster movie on the big screen Well, I thoroughly enjoyed Ghostbusters 2016 Ghostbusters after life was the squeal. I had been waiting for since my childhood I imagine that is supposed to be squeal, an old sequel, but anyway. Oh, oh! Anyway, maybe both work. It's High Levels of Nostalgia also worked well for the Columbo style story it was telling and bringing in the original cast felt like a natural payoff to the

plot. I therefore went into Frozen Empire with high anticipation for another fun ride I therefore went into Frozen Empire with high anticipation for another fun ride in Ecto 1, and that's exactly what I got. It was a proton pack of cool ideas and a ghost trap full of nostalgia. It packed a lot into its relatively short runtime. Its slow-burning story was like the previous instalments, both over-the-top and world-ending, yet remaining grounded in its semi-world setting. My only gripe would be that several clips in the trailer did not appear in the movie, which is something that happens quite a lot. I can appreciate why those who are not big fans

of the original movies or those with immature views on Ghostbusters 2016 might find this entry dull, boring and derivative, but frankly I don't care because busting makes me feel good. Mason- Yeah, good. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed busting makes me feel good. Yeah. Good. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. You know, it's rubbish. Okay. Which case let's enjoy together the pleasures of the laughter lift.

Enjoy. Yes. Okay. We need to enjoy it. It'll be a novelty. You sound like the crypt keeper, Neil. Bobby Boris Cryptkicker. Bobby Boris and the Cryptkicker 5.

That's the one. Hey, Mark. Can we have a little bit of less? There you go. Hey, Mark. Hey, son. I've been looking back on my childhood this week. I remember my dad used to drive us out to high down downhill and roll us down in some old tires.

They were the good years. Yeah, I mean, not funny. Not the four tops. Yeah, not the four tops. I visited an old friend this week to see his new house. Make yourself at home, he said. So I threw him out. Can't bear visitors.

And I would just like to say that that's how I felt when your family came to stay. And finally, Mark, some personal news. Yes. I'm afraid to have to tell you I have a disease or I can't stop telling airport jokes. Okay. My doctor says it's terminal. Yeah. And the four tops.

Anyway, we'll be back after this. I'm very glad you did actually put the four tops separately because you're right, that was different because that was funny. We'll be back after this, unless of course you're our Vanguard East, in which case we have just one question. What year is it in Ethiopia? Simon here from, well, the podcast you're currently listening to. And I'd like to tell you about Uber One, a membership to save money on Uber and Uber

Eats. Mark, what do you spend most of your time doing? Watching films to review on this podcast. Okay, but how do you get to the screenings? I travel there. And what do you do to ensure you don't let out loud belly rumbles during the quiet moments of the film? I eat food before.

Well, what would you say if I said you could save money on both traveling and eating food? I'd say Simon, sorry that can't be done in a single place. Well Mark, thanks to Uber One it can be done. Uber One is a membership to save money on Uber and Uber Eats. On top of that you can get member perks and benefits like a year of Disney Plus included. With Uber One you get zero pound delivery fee, you also get savings on Uber rides and 5% off your Uber Eats deliveries when you sign up for an annual membership. A year of Disney Plus included as well? Wow.

Join Uber One now to save on Uber and Uber Eats. This episode is brought to you by MUBI, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe. From iconic directors to emerging auteurs, there is always something new to discover, such as... Well, such as high and low John Galliano, which is the thought-provoking new documentary from Oscar winner Kevin MacDonald, charting the rise and fall of the fashion designer John Galliano.

It traces Galliano's working and private life through the decades, candidly investigating his struggles with addiction and the industry pressure he faced along the way. It features conversations with Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Pelleby Cruz, Charlize Theron, Anna Wintour and many, many more. And it is showing in UK cinemas from March the 8th. Or you could explore the Women Cinematographers Film Group, streaming on MUBI in the UK from March the 8th. As women have found more equal footing in the film industry, directors, producers, and screenwriters, cinematography remains

a stubborn final frontier. Around International Women's Day, MUBI are spotlighting the artistic and technical work of women working behind the camera, including, including films such as Annette from 2021, Benedetta from the same year, and more recently, Passages, all streaming in the UK from March the 8th.

You can try Mubi free for 30 days at Mubi.com slash Kermade Meo. That's Mubi.com slash Kermade Meo for a whole month of great cinema for free. So what year is it in Ethiopia, would you say? So I'm inclined to say 2024 because… It's like, well, we could be here forever. Yeah, one, year one. No, it's 2016. Because…

Apparently, while much of the world uses the Gregorian calendar, Ethiopia has its own calendar, which is also known as the Ge'ez calendar, based on the ancient Coptic calendar, which is seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar, owing to alternative calculations in determining the date of the Annunciation of the birth of Jesus. Depending on when you think the Annunciation was, we're either in 2016 or 2024. When do you think the annunciation was? Well, I mean, I think it's all being made up, isn't it?

I mean, all those dates, it's like Christmas wasn't Christmas, was it? Come on, it was snowing in Bethlehem and they're all gathered round. And Easter is Eostar and, you know. Happy Easter, by the way. Happy Easter? Happy EostOster. Thank you. There is likely right.

Because it's a vague... Yes, exactly. Well, precisely, who knows? So with that information firmly planted in your mind, it's time to enjoy our guest for this week. Okay. We're doing a lot of enjoying in this program. It's sort of, it's so joy-filled from start to finish.

You're in a very perky mood today. Not just in, that's because I had- Which is funny because your taxi was late. Because I had three hours sleep and my taxi was late, but I had a bit of a rock and roll start to the day. Oh, I see. So that's what it is, funny. It's the rock and roll start with the grandchild playing with the rockola.

Is it a rockola? Yeah, it is a rockola. Rockola has put a spring in your Yeah, it is a rockola. Has, has brought a spring in your step. I need to do that. I never managed to do. No, that's funny that also, because I wouldn't be able to hold you up to the jukebox.

Do you think that's what you do? You, the, the, no, yeah. So he's like, he's over one shoulder, right? So I have to hold him up with both hands, which means that after Ritchie Valence, Paul Simon, the 1910 fruit gum company, I am very achy. As soon as you put him down, he protests. But he does protest in Danish, so I can pretend I don't know what he's talking about.

Anyway, I guess you could say our guest today has both an OB and an OB one. That should have gone in the laughter lift. Yes, of course. It's the star of Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge, Velvet Goldmine, Dr Sleeper, Life Less Ordinary, Shallow Grave and so on. He is about to star as Alexander Rostov in Paramount Plus' new series A Gentleman in Moscow. You can hear my conversation.

I should say, just to repeat, I, in case it sounds odd to you, can't hear almost anything that he says. Couldn't hear, but you can now. Hopefully I'll be able to hear it now, because here we go with Ewan McGregor, first of all, a clip from A Gentleman in Moscow. For the last four years I have resided in suite 317 of the Metropol Hotel. Why? My house was burned down.

Occupation. It's not the business of gentlemen to have occupations. They won't go to you to Russia. You do not seem to appreciate the gravity of your position. No, I fear I understand it perfectly. You left Russia for Paris in the spring of 1914. Yes, I remember Apple Blossom in the trees. More likely a bit of offspring. What concerns us here is your return in 1918. Why did you come back only a year after the revolution?

You must have understood the reception a man of your nobility would receive. I missed the climate. And that is a clip from a gentleman in Moscow. I'm delighted to say I've been joined by that very gentleman, although he's not in Moscow, I suspect. Ewan McGregor. Hello, how are you, sir? I'm very good. How are you doing? I'm very fine. Where are we speaking to you? It looks like you're in the corner of a very cozy hotel room, I think.

Yes, that's exactly where I am. In Midtown New York. We're doing the press junket for a gentleman in Moscow. So, been in New York for a couple of days. Will Barron You look far more recognisable than you do as the Gentleman in Moscow. Introduce us to this new series that you're doing, Ewan. Ewan Birney Yeah, it was, Amor Toles wrote an amazing novel in 2016. It was published called The Gentleman of Moscow. And it's the story is set in the backdrop of post-revolutionary Russia, and it starts in 1921. And so it's three, four years after the revolution and communism is taking hold of Russia.

And of course, the aristocracy, one of the things that happened in the revolution is that they either executed or exiled all of the aristocracy. And our central character, who I am fortunate enough to play, Alexander Ilyich Rostov, is a count and comes from a fine Russian family. And of course, he's brought up and the R piece starts with his sort of tribunal hearing. And he would be probably put up against the wall and executed, other than the fact that he wrote, or that he's believed to have written, a somewhat communistic poem in his youth. So he's held to be somebody with sort of communist leanings and so they spare his life. But he is forced to live under house arrest in the hotel where he keeps a suite of rooms, the Metropole Hotel. So the whole piece takes

place inside our hotel. Amor tells, I spoke to him in 2016, 2017 when his book came out. It's one of those books that was genuinely kind of, and honestly described as a publishing phenomenon. Were you aware of it at the time or did you read it in recent months? Yeah, well I became aware of it probably a couple of years after it was written. It was talked about as something that might be being adapted for the screen one way or another.

Then it came to me through, I spoke with a British executive producer, Tom Harper, who I spoke at a great length about the piece and I became intrigued about it. Then I was sent a very early draft of episode one, maybe episode two. I can't remember, but then I met our writer, Ben Vanstone, and I really clicked with him and I desperately wanted to play the part. Then I started reading the novel. So I had this luxury of reading the novel,

knowing I was going to get a chance to play him. So every detail of the book and his character, I soaked up, you know, and I read the book so slowly because I was enjoying it so much. I didn't, I never wanted it to end, you know, I think it's a good mark of a great piece of literature if you're slow reading it in the second half, you know. Why would an aristocrat return to revolutionary Russia? There's a backstory about our count that is revealed through the series and he's lost

his sister. His sister has passed away and he can't, there's two things. I think he feels like if he leaves his country, he's leaving her. And there's a lot of unresolved guilt and different feelings about her passing that he carries, which stop him from leaving. And also he feels that it's his country and he is one of Russia's people. And he doesn't want to feel like he has to be in exile. He wants to live there. Sort of digs his feet in, if you like.

It digs his heels in a bit, I guess. Tell us about physically becoming the Count. He's a very striking man. He has a very striking character, but he's striking to look at. How did you become Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov? When I started thinking about him, I remember, I kept remembering this oil painting and I couldn't remember where I'd seen it or why. I was familiar, but it was of a gentleman,

a younger gentleman than I am, with dark hair, sort of with a curl in it and high. And I kept seeing this and I couldn't remember. And gradually it came back to me that it was the cover of the Stendhal novel, The Red and the Black, which I was involved in in 1993, I think. We did the three-part BBC adaptation of that novel. And I played Julian Sorrell.

And this was a picture that the publishers of the novel, I guess, thought maybe represented Julian Sorrell. So I Googled it and I found it. And I thought, yeah, that's right. It was a totally different period than we're doing here. We're in the 1920s. This was much earlier, this painting. But still, there was something about the sort of aloofness of this character that I drew

from. And so when I started speaking with Jackie, our amazing makeup and hair designer, I talked about, I think he should have curly hair and it should be high and crazy. Like people with money and status sometimes, there's a sort, I don't know, I wanted him to stick out. I wanted him to stand out in the hotel. A, because he's of a class that's been

destroyed and no one else is in it. He's the only one that represents that class now. And also because he's sort of haughty about it and he's not going quietly. So that helped. This is the look. And so we went to, we got my hair permed and... Hey, that's amazing. Your hair is permed for the first time ever

or for the first time for a few decades. For a very long time. The first time I've only ever had it permed once before, and that was for Lipstick on Your Collar, Dennis Potter's series that I shot in 1992. And yeah, that was the last time I had it permed, it was a while back. Well, we're talking about reminiscing, maybe I think from the 90s, there'll be a moment in episode one, where maybe people will think the same as me, that's the worst toilet you've

seen since Trainspotting. Which toilet's that? Oh, well, there's a horrendous toilet. Oh, well, if you don't see it, then that's fine. But I was thinking, okay, maybe you're going to be thinking that, but maybe that's entirely me. Tell us about the hotel, Ewan, because it seems almost like a magical hotel. I mean, it's clearly a five-star hotel. You can't imagine it ever running out of rooms, but it almost has it, it has its own personality. Tell us about it. Yeah, the hotels is really a character in the, in our story.

In the book, it's a, it's a, it's a major character in the piece, if you like. And yeah, it's, the Count's lived there before the story. He's been living there for four years because in the revolution, they burnt down his country estate. And he was, you know, we see in these very cleverly shot flashbacks, him getting his grandmother out of the country estate

as it's on fire and getting her in the carriage to send her off to England. And he remains in Russia, but he takes a room, I guess, he takes a suite of rooms in the Metropol Hotel. And so when he's like imprisoned there, he probably feels like he's sort of won the lottery in a way. A, because he's alive, but B, because he gets to stay in his nice fancy suite,

you know, for the rest of his life. But of course, when he gets back there, there's somebody from the, I don't know, it wasn't the KGB then, but someone from the sort of Soviet Union's secret police is waiting for him in his suite and tells him to take a few things and leads him to his actual room, which is gonna be his room, which is a terrible damp, or this would maybe be where you mean the terrible toilet, grim looking attic room that he is actually going to live in. And so there's the glossy luxurious side of this hotel. And it's true that they allowed it to still operate

like that during Soviet times because they wanted a place where they could spy on everybody, so all the international people coming in and out of Russia. And then the backstage of it and he's introduced to the backstage, the sort of secret side of the hotel that the guests wouldn't normally be parted to by a young girl called Nina who befriends him because she's also stuck in the hotel. Her father works for the party and he's working all day long and into the night. So she's left alone in the hotel to get up to her own devices as well. They befriend each other and she introduces him to

all these back passageways and secret rooms and old storage rooms. Yeah, she teaches him how to live there really for the rest of his days. Ewan, it's been fantastic speaking to you. Thank you very much indeed for your time. What do we see you in next? Where are you heading after Gentleman in Moscow? There's a few things coming out. There's a film I made with my daughter Clara Clara, called Bleeding Love, which is just,

I'm not sure in Great Britain if it's available now, but here it's just available to download from Apple. And that was a beautiful piece that my daughter helped write and put together and produced. And we act in it together as a father and a daughter. Bleeding Love, that's called. And then I made a film with Nicholas Larsen called Mother Couch with Ellen Burstyn.

And that's an extraordinary movie. That's about to come out soon, I think. And then I'm about to go off to work with Anne Hathaway on a movie for Warner Brothers in Atlanta. And I'm leaving to do that tonight. Not much rest for you, but Ewan, we appreciate you speaking to us today. Thank you very much, and all the best for A Gentleman in Moscow, which is on Paramount, and it's not written or directed by Taylor Sheridan, which makes it exceptional. And it's a most enjoyable series.

Thank you very much, Adi, for talking to us. Cheers, mate. Take care. Thank you. He smiled and chortled at that very industry observation. Just if you do have Paramount+, it's like everything that you watch. Taylor Sheridan. He's gone Taylor Sheridan. And the man is extraordinary. I mean, you know, series after series after series, but not this one. Always nice to talk to Ewan McGregor. And he sounds as though he is working more than he's ever worked.

Yes, but also, I mean, you know, one minute Ellen Burstyn, next minute Anne Hathaway. This is top work. Yeah, top work. I'd love to work with Ellen Burstyn. Anyway, yeah. So to get you into doing a series like this, he obviously has to be intrigued. He obviously was with the script and with the book. What do you make of A Gentleman in Moscow?

So it's eight episodes. I've seen five. I'm not sure how many I'm able to talk about, so I'll restrict it to the early stuff. But when he said that thing about the Metropol Hotel is a character, which is a kind of cliche, but the fact is it is. And so there's a lot of comparison between people talk about West Hampton and the Grand Budapest Hotel. I was actually thinking of the terminal, weirdly enough. The idea about the terminal becomes his whole world, particularly because in the terminal, he does the thing about going behind

the outer spaces and he discovers the whole sort of world behind it. And that's what, because there are all these doors and all these wall openings in the Metropole. So he finds that he can literally become the people within the walls. Which he could explore it for the rest of his life. Yeah. And certainly, and you raised this, there's the idea that as his world is physically shrunken, actually his world begins to expand because he starts to discover that it's not just about the fact that he was posh and privileged and entitled. There's a lot of good discussion about the fact that he knows about fine wines, and that's not a privilege. He said, no, it is a privilege.

Anyway, so that's all good fun. You can tell that he's enjoying himself. I liked the fact that the character was, it's a very physical realization. I was thinking of Ken Branagh's Urquilbuaro, because there's the mustache which tells you everything about him. Then very early on, I'm sure this is the first couple of episodes, the mustache is attacked. And then the way in which his hair and his mustache are worn is very much a kind of indicator of where his character

is. And of course, what happens during the course of the episodes, I've seen five of them, he ages and this young girl that he meets, who he's kind of enchanted by, he's infuriated by her originally. And she's, you know, doing stories. Nine-year-old Nina. Yeah. And then during the course of the thing, she grows up. And so, you know, as he age, obviously, but it sort of leaps forward through periods of time. Obviously, if you read the book, you know, you know, all of this anyway. There's a lovely moment when, when he's first, he goes back to the metro, he's told he has to be in the metro pole, and he goes back to his suite of rooms and he says, yeah, okay, fine, this is my suite

of rooms, this is all fabulous. What are you doing? The guy says, I'm going to take you to where you're going to stay. I'm going to stay here. He says, no, you're not. They take him upstairs to this kind of Shawshank redemption style attic. Because this is a guy from the emergency committee of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. You don't want to go in front of them. The People's Popular Front of Duty. Exactly. And there's this whole thing that no matter how diminished his circumstances are, he has

to remain, you know, he says they can take everything away from you, they can take your house, they can burn everything down, but they can't take away who you are. And so there's this sort of, you know, stubbornness, which McGregor is clearly enjoying doing of being the character that he is, even though his circumstances have been diminished and he's ordering the finest wines and even when all the labels get taken off the wines, he's still ordering the finest wines. I really enjoyed his performance. The point that you made about it ought to be a true story actually really hits the nail on the head. Because a true story, actually really hits the nail on the head. Because as the story moves on and it gets into the 1930s and he ages, there was a one point actually when I was watching it and I briefly thought for a moment, hang on, is this based on a true story? Which of

course it isn't. But I did like it. I mean, it's very easy to watch. Within this small microcosmic world, there's politics, there's people growing up, there's romance, there's the big chargey dogs that career around and destroy the restaurant. And of course, he's co-starring with his real life partner. And- Mary Elizabeth Winston. And you said you read somewhere in an interview that they had an intimacy coordinator on set.

Yeah, they have an, yes, he said they had an intimacy coordinator, but he said it was justified because of everyone else who's involved. Cause there's a sound crew and there's cameras and everything else. And the intimacy coordinator is for them as much as for anything else. But on the face of it, it does sound unnecessary. Well, yeah, although intimacy coordination, I'm all for it. It's a great thing. But the character that she plays is this sort of movie star who, you know, it's all glamour and, you know, dogs running all over the place. And there is a few episodes later on in which there is to be a visit from Stalin.

That's always going to be something to look forward to. Always going to be. And it's not the crown, but I think it's very enjoyable. And I think it's largely enjoyable because Ewan McGregor seems to be enjoying himself so much. And it's easy on the eye. And I found it's very Moorish because I had thought that I would just watch two episodes and I watched five. And that's on Paramount Plus, that's a gentleman in Moscow. What is your final film that you're going to do? Silver Haze on the way. at Canada.ca slash mental health. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988, a message from the Government of Canada.

Working at your local Tim's is more than serving coffee. It's building connections with a team in a great environment, connecting with your guests in the community, and participating in programs like Smile Cookie and Hockey Card Trade Nights. So join your local Tim's team today. Apply now at careers.timhortons.ca. Correspondence at COVIDimedia.com, by the way, Nick in Leeds. Regarding the science fiction abbreviation debate. Oh yeah, the sci-fi, sky-fi. Yeah. Not to split hairs, but when pronouncing the name the accepted way, sci-fi, aren't

we already altering the sound of the second I, surely the correct abbreviation should be —Syphi —Syphi, or Syphi, to rhyme with my T. What is the difference between altering the first I sound to the second? —No, it's not the I! —Do consonants, in this case the silent or Nazi, take preference over vowel shifts, and in which case why? As someone born in Derby with parents from Manchester, raised in Yorkshire, who's lived 20-plus countries including Vietnam, China, India, South Africa and the UAE, such debates fascinate me. Thanks from Pedants Corner. Okay. No, I mean-

It should be sci-fi. Sci-fi. Should we call it that from now on? It'd be very annoying. It'd be really, really annoying. Slightly infected. Like the nights who say sci-fi. And we'll go, yes, it's sci-fi. And actually that's correct, actually, because the thing is you don't say sci-fi-tion. No. Actually, let's start calling say sci-fi. And we'll go, yes, it's sci-fi. And actually that's correct, actually, because the thing is, you don't say science fiction. No. Actually, let's start calling it science fiction.

Sky fiction. Let's do that and annoy even more people. What else is out? Silver Haze. Now you'll have to look for this because this is a smaller release, but this is a film that played at the BFI Flare Festival recently, and it stars Vicky Knight, who I've had the privilege of interviewing on stage, who is a really terrific rising star, BAFTA breakthrough Brit.

She made a film a few years ago called Dirty God, which is directed by Sasha Pollock, and she reunites with Sasha Pollock for this. She plays a character called Frankie, who is a healthcare worker and who as a child survived a pub fire. She's now obsessed with the past, with what happened in the past, why what happened in the past. And as a result of that obsession, she's kind of finding it very hard to make relationships in the present and the future until when she's working in a hospital, she meets a character called Florence played by Esme Creed Miles, who has a self-destructive streak.

And yet when they start talking to each other, they kind of find that they are closer in personality perhaps than they might have expected because they've both got ghosts and demons that they're dealing with and that they start talking about. Here is a clip. I remember going to bed at about eight o'clock. There was a bit of a party in the pub, so I went to bed. I remember having this really, really, really strange dream. I remember when people said they could see the light.

I just remember it. Trying to open my eyes and all I could see was white. And then I had a massive bang and Mike was standing there. So I interviewed Vicky Knight just recently when this film came out. And she said that an awful lot of the story and the character is based on her own story. Because in the first film that she made in Dirty God,

she was working full-time as a healthcare. She wasn't an actor at all, but she developed this relationship with the director who used her own life story to create this character. I said at the time, on the evidence of Dirty God, she's got a great screen career ahead of her if that's what she wants to do, because it may well be that she doesn't want to act. It was really terrific to see her back in Silver Haze in which she's absolutely, she dominates the screen. She's not a trained actor. She has a naturalism that is, it's really kind of, she's magnetic.

She's really charismatic. And what happens is as a result of meeting this character played by Esby Creed Miles, initially they sort of, they find an intimacy, they find a love, a bond. But that character is also an agent of chaos and starts to provoke Frankie into acts of recklessness in relation to her past and her estranged father. I thought the film was great. I think it's a really interesting character piece. Although the story can be quite tough, it's a really, really interesting character piece. Although the story can be

quite tough, it's beautiful to watch. There are moments in it which are really dreamy and mesmerizing. At the center of it, Vicky Knight and Esme Creed-Miles together are really terrific. Of course, Esme Creed-Miles has had a lot of acting experience. But there's something about the way in which their different styles work that completely jails. I watched the whole film thinking, I absolutely believe in these characters. I know that what Vicki Knight is doing is drawing on autobiographical experience to some extent. But she's a really brilliant actor. And I think once again, Sasha Pollock has got a terrific performance out of her. Anyway, the film's called Silver Haze and remember the name Vicky Knight.

She is going to be really, really big. So what's on now? This is where we invite you to tell us about stuff, cinematically themed, that might be happening near you. For example, this. Hello, Mark and Simon. In April, the Viva Spanish and Latin American Festival will be celebrating its 30th year at home cinema in Manchester.

There'll be 27 feature films and 10 short films from across the Spanish-speaking world. The festival lasts from the 5th to the 25th of April with a selection of comedy, drama and much more. More information can be found online at homemanchester.org where you can purchase tickets at the Home Box Office. Gracias. Hi Simon and Mark, this is Dave at the DRI Center for Dream Studies in Little Venice in London. On April 19th at 5.30pm in our Regency Ballroom we will be screening the one hour documentary Chaos Dragon and the Light, followed by a Q&A with director Sal Anderson. In childhood Marika Henriquez was hidden from the Nazis in a Budapest cellar.

Later she was forced to flee communist Hungary. The film tells Marika's story through interview, archive footage and Marika's own drawings and tapestries. Tickets are at www.dricpe.org.uk forward slash events. So that was Dave from the DRI Centre for Dream Studies in London, inviting everybody to a screening of what sounds like a very interesting documentary. And Anna promoting the Viva Spanish and Latin Film Festival in Manchester, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. If you have an event you would like to promote, please keep sending us your voice notes to

the usual address, correspondence at kerbinamao.com. But please note, we'll be doing them monthly from now on, so make sure you get your note to us for the last pod for the previous month. So May's events will be done on the podcast, which is recorded on April 24th. June's will be recorded on May 29th, and so on. So anything semantically themed that you'd like to promote on a monthly basis, correspondence at Kermit and Mayo dot com. That is the end of take one.

This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. This week's, never, we've done that, this week's team was Lily, Gully, Vicky, Zacky, Matty and Bethy. The producer was Jeremy. The redactor was Simon. Mark, what is your film of the week? Silver Haze. Please go see it. It's really terrific and it deserves your attention. Thank you very much indeed for downloading this podcast. Take two is also available from

your podcast shop. Your podcast shop? Just pop down to the shop. Go down and think, say, I'd like a bottle of lighter fluid for me dad. Yes. And the new take. And a pack of crisps. Yes. And the new take. And a pack of licorice. Yes.